NEW YORK—For the first time in six years, the Columbia women's tennis program will host the eight-team 2020 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Indoor Tennis Championship Friday through Sunday at Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The Lions will enter the tournament as the No. 4 seed and will open ECAC Championship play against No. 5 seed Brown on Friday at 11 a.m. A tournament bracket and schedule is posted at this link and updated ECAC information can be accessed at this link.
 
The ECAC Championship event will run Friday through Sunday and feature 12 matches over the three-day weekend. The teams will compete in a bracketed tournament featuring eight teams with championship and consolation brackets. Each team will play three matches and will be seeded. Including host Columbia, the field comprises of seven Ivy League teams including rivals Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Yale, along with Massachusetts. Princeton will not compete since it advanced to ITA Indoor Nationals.
 
Competition begins with first round matchups on Friday morning at 8 a.m. A match program is available at this link.
 
Columbia is hosting the ECAC Championship for the first time since 2014. Head Coach Ilene Weintraub and the Lions have won two ECAC titles in program history: as hosts in 2014 and 2019. The Lions enter the weekend as the defending ECAC champions as they claimed the 2019 title with consecutive victories on three straight days over Yale (4-2), Penn (4-2) and Princeton (4-1). Take a look at Columbia's run to the 2019 ECAC Championship at this link.
 
Columbia (3-2) enters the weekend after claiming a 6-1 dual match at Maryland on Saturday. Six Lions have won 10 or more singles matches: sophomore Melissa Sakar and first-year Michelle Xu are 15-2 overall, sophomore Akanksha Bhan is ranked No. 65 nationally and is 14-7, junior Jennifer Kerr is 12-5, while first-years Shivani Amineni and first-year Julia Haynes are 12-4 and 12-3 respectively. In doubles, Columbia is led by Bhan and junior Paulina Ferrari with a 10-5 record, Haynes and Xu are 12-4 overall and Kerr and Amineni are 6-1. Updated statistics are available at this link.
 
A full weekend schedule is below.
 
2020 ECAC WOMEN'S INDOOR TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Feb. 7-9, 2020 | Dick Savitt Tennis Center | New York, N.Y.
 
Friday, Feb. 7 Schedule
Match 1: No. 1 seed Harvard (3-1) vs. No. 8 seed Cornell (0-5), 8 a.m.
Match 2: No. 4 seed Columbia (3-2) vs. No. 5 seed Brown (2-2), 11 a.m.
Match 3: No. 3 seed Yale (2-1) vs. No. 6 seed Massachusetts (3-2), 2 p.m.
Match 4: No. 2 seed Penn (2-2) vs. No. 7 seed Dartmouth (2-3), 5 p.m.
 
Saturday, Feb. 8 Schedule
Match 5: Loser Match 1 vs. Loser Match 2, 8 a.m.
Match 6: Loser Match 3 vs. Loser Match 4, 11 a.m.
Match 7: Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2, 2 p.m.
March 8: Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4, 5 p.m.
 
Sunday, Feb. 9 Schedule
Match 9: Loser Match 5 vs. Loser Match 6, 8 a.m.
Match 10: Winner Match 5 vs. Winner Match 6, 11 a.m.
Match 11: Loser Match 7 vs. Loser Match 8, 2 p.m.
March 12: Championship: Winner Match 7 vs. Winner Match 8, 5 p.m.
 
All matches to be played at Dick Savitt Tennis Center